Quantum Units Education

A missing brain enzyme increases concentrations of a protein related to pain-killer addiction, according to an animal study.

The results will be presented Monday at The Endocrine Society’s 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Opioids are pain-killing drugs, derived from the opium plant, which block signals of pain between nerves in the body. They are manufactured in prescription medications like morphine and codeine, and also are found in some illegal drugs, like heroin. Both legal and illegal opioids can be highly addictive.

In addition to the synthetic opioids, natural opioids are produced by the body. Most people have heard of the so-called feel-good endorphins, which are opioid-like proteins produced by various organs in the body in response to certain activities, like exercise.

Drug addiction occurs, in part, because opioid-containing drugs alter the brain’s biochemical balance of naturally produced opioids. Nationwide, drug abuse of opioid-containing prescription drugs is skyrocketing, and researchers are trying to identify the risk factors that differentiate people who get addicted from those who do not.

Full story of enzyme linked to drug addiction at Science Daily

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Beedie Savage – President of Quantum Units Education

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found evidence that an emotion-related brain region called the central amygdala — whose activity promotes feelings of malaise and unhappiness — plays a major role in sustaining cocaine addiction.

In experiments with rats, the TSRI researchers found signs that cocaine-induced changes in this brain system contribute to anxiety-like behavior and other unpleasant symptoms of drug withdrawal — symptoms that typically drive an addict to keep using. When the researchers blocked specific brain receptors called kappa opioid receptors in this key anxiety-mediating brain region, the rats’ signs of addiction abated.

“These receptors appear to be a good target for therapy,” said Marisa Roberto, associate professor in TSRI’s addiction research group, the Committee on the Neurobiology of Addictive Disorders. Roberto was the principal investigator for the study, which appears in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Carrot or Stick?

In addition to its clinical implications, the finding represents an alternative to the pleasure-seeking, “positive” motivational circuitry that is traditionally emphasized in addiction.

Full story of the brains dark side at Science Daily

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Beedie Savage – President of Quantum Units Education

Young people are increasingly turning to prescription drugs to get high. Research out of the University of Cincinnati sheds new light on what could increase or lower that risk.

The research by Keith King, a University of Cincinnati professor of health promotion; Rebecca Vidourek, a UC assistant professor of health promotion; and Ashley Merianos, a graduate assistant in health promotion, is published in the current issue of the Journal of Primary Prevention.

The study focused on more than 54,000 7th- through 12th — grade students in schools across Greater Cincinnati, including the Tristate regions of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. The data was collected by the Coalition for a Drug Free Greater Cincinnati as part of the 2009-2010 Pride Survey on adolescent drug use in America.

A total of 13.7 percent of the students reported using prescription drugs — without a doctor’s prescription — in their lifetime. Males were more likely to abuse prescription drugs, as well as high school students, versus junior high school students. Among ethnicities studied, Hispanic students indicated they were more likely to use nonmedical prescription drugs compared with white and African-American students.

Full story of prescription drug abuse at Science Daily

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Beedie Savage – President of Quantum Units Education

Investors are paying more attention to the burgeoning marijuana market, in light of the drug’s legalization in Washington state and Colorado, USA Today reports. With more states considering similar legislation, and a growing number of Americans favoring legalization, the business community’s interest is increasing.

The trade journal Medical Marijuana Business Daily estimates the $1.5 billion legal market could reach $6 billion by 2018. “The industry has grown up a lot since we launched in 2011,” said the publication’s editor, Chris Walsh. “It was the activists and hippies. We’re seeing more grownups over the past two years, and it’s accelerating in the last six months.”

Investors are looking to back consulting firms, insurance agencies and software companies to serve the marijuana market, the article notes. They see a large, fragmented market, with a lack of leadership and tools to develop it. They are avoiding investing in businesses that buy and sell marijuana directly, since the drug remains illegal under federal law.

Full story of investors and marijuana at DrugFree.org

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Beedie Savage – President of Quantum Units Education

Fascinating new studies into brain activity and behavioral responses have highlighted the overlap between pathological gambling and drug addiction. The research, which is presented at the British Neuroscience Association Festival of Neuroscience (BNA2013)  has implications for both the treatment and prevention of problem gambling.

Dr Luke Clark, a senior lecturer at the University of Cambridge (UK), told the meeting that neurocognitive tests of impulsivity and compulsivity, and also positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of the brain have started to show how gambling becomes addictive in pathological gamblers — people whose gambling habit has spiraled out of control and become a problem.

“Around 70% of the British population will gamble occasionally, but for some of these people, it will become a problem,” he said. “Our work has been seeking to understand the changes in decision-making that happen in people with gambling problems. It represents the first large scale study of individuals seeking treatment for gambling problems in the UK, at a time when this disorder is being re-classified alongside drug addiction as the first ‘behavioral addiction’. Given the unique legislation around gambling from country to country, it is vital that we understand gambling at a national level. For example, 40% of the problem gamblers at the National Problem Gambling Clinic report that the game they have a problem with is roulette on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals; this kind of gambling machine is peculiar to the British gambling landscape.”

Full story of mechanisms of gambling addictions at Science Daily

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Beedie Savage – President of Quantum Units Education